


The Glass Ballerina

by SapphyWatchesYouSleep (Sapphy)



Series: A Very Unjust Christmas [1]
Category: DCU, DCU (Comics), Hellblazer & Related Fandoms, Injustice: Gods Among Us
Genre: Biracial Character, Christmas, Christmas Decorations, Christmas Eve, Christmas Tree, Domestic, F/M, Families of Choice, Father-Daughter Relationship, Fatherhood, Female Character of Color, Fluff, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Kid Fic, Love, POV Female Character, Polyamorous Character, Soul Bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-25
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-03-03 13:36:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2852702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sapphy/pseuds/SapphyWatchesYouSleep
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Rose's first Christmas without her mom, and they've all lost a lot recently, so Zatanna is determined to make this the best Christmas ever. And she's not going to let having no presents, no kitchen, and being on the run from Superman stop her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Glass Ballerina

**Author's Note:**

> I adore the Injustice 'Verse, and I have _so many feels_ about John Constantine, so I decided to channel them all into a series of ridiculously fluffy little Christmas fics. This one is Christmas eve, and there's theoretically two more to come. Enjoy!
> 
> (Oh, and anyone wondering about the word cwtch, it's a welsh word for a hug that translates as 'a safe place'. The w is pronounced as a u. Scousers use a lot of odd welsh words. I don't actually know if cwtch is one of them, but it's a lovely word so sod it, I'm adding it to John's vocabulary.)

Doctor Fate surveys the large tree now taking up a significant portion of the tower’s main room. 

“I do not see what tactical advantage this will bring us,” he says. It’s impossible to see his expressions behind the shining metal of his helmet, but Zatanna’s got pretty good at judging his moods from his body language. He looks confused.

“It will boost morale,” she tells him, because trying to explain the joy of Christmas is definitely a hiding to nowhere. “Also, it’s Rose’s first Christmas without her mum. We want to make it special for her.”

“I do not understand how greenery will ease the pain of her loss,” Fate says, and Zatanna sighs.

“You don’t have to understand, just accept. Now go and find the tower’s kitchen, or make one, or however this place works.”

Normally Zee is pretty good at magical houses, but the tower is integrally linked to Fate’s power, completely inaccessible to anyone else. Thus far she’d failed to locate a kitchen, not normally a problem, but she refused to make Christmas dinner for the entire resistance using magic.

He disappears, hopefully in search of kitchens.

“Don’t suppose they had Christmas in Ancient Egypt,” a warm voice behind her says, and she smells the musky scent of John’s cologne as he steps up behind her.

“That’s no excuse,” she says, smiling.

There’s a shriek of laughter, and they both turn to watch Harley and Rose, who have appointed themselves decorators in chief, put the fairy on top of the tree. (A fierce fairy versus star debate had raged for several days in the tower, but in the end even Harley had agreed that they should go with Rose’s choice.)

The tree is the tallest the room would take, and as the rooms of the Tower of Fate are mostly large with very high ceilings, the top of it is far beyond the reach of either a slight woman or a small child. Harley has solved this problem by standing on a small armchair, which in turn in balanced on a footstool, with Rose seated on her shoulders.

Zee watches with a smile, and a cushioning spell ready, but when they inevitably do fall (overbalanced by Harley’s fist pump when Rose finally manages to get the pretty white and gold fairy into the tree), it’s John’s magic that catches them, turning the air behind them into a sort of mattress, so that they bounce on nothing when they land.

“Look at you,” she says, grinning. “You play all hard, but really you’re just a great big softy.”

He presses a gentle kiss to the top of her head, slinging an arm around her shoulders, and she leans back into his reassuring warmth. “Don’t go saying things like that out loud, love. You’ll ruin my reputation.”

“You don’t have a reputation,” Selena said, sashaying into the room. Zatanna had never met anyone who sashayed before. “Batman wishes to know what you intend to serve for dinner. And whether he’s expected to buy anyone presents.”

“Batman did not send you to ask that.”

“No. But he was thinking it. I’ve known him a long time, and he takes Christmas very seriously. I’d like to make it good for him, it’ll be hard without any of his boys.”

“There’s still one left, isn’t there? Isn’t Red Robin still alive?”

Selena shakes her head. “I don’t know. He won’t talk about him. Red Hood is an ex-Robin, but he’s officially missing. I’ve heard rumours that he was in Metropolis when the bomb hit.”

“We’ve all lost people. That’s what this Christmas is all about.” By the tree, Harley and Rose are arguing good naturedly over the never-ending box of baubles Zatanna had conjured for them. They look happy, and normal, no sign in that moment of everything they’ve lost. Zatanna doesn’t mourn the Joker, but he was Harley’s world, and she knows the deaths of Ollie and Dinah hit her hard. They’d like her, and believed in her, and Zatanna bet that that had been a rare thing in Harley’s life.

“Well you can tell Batman presents are not required, since it’s not like any of us can go shopping, but there will be party games. And we’re having turkey.”

“You know no one actually likes turkey, right?”

“It’s traditional. It’s also the bird apart from Ostrich that has enough meat to feed everyone who’s coming.”

“When you said you were going to invite the entire resistance, I didn’t think you were serious!”

Nick, whose been listening to them in uncharacteristic silence, laughs. “Zee never jokes about parties.”

“It’s not the whole resistance, just those of us living in the tower. Plus Deadman, Batwoman and her wife, Huntress, Commissioner Gordon and his daughter, Black Lightning and Klarion.”

“Oh, just an intimate little gathering then,” John says. She can feel his smile against her hair.

“Is it really a good idea to have the whole Insurgency in one place?” Selena asks. “What if Superman finds out?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Zatanna told her. “No-one can get in here without Fate’s permission and I’ve checked the arrangements with Batman before I invited anyone. It’s all good.”

“If the B-Man says it’s okay, then it’ll be fine,” Harley says, bouncing over. “Anyway this place is magic. Probably not even Santa could find it!”

She bounced off to do whatever it was she did. Talk Flash’s ear off, probably. She’d been spending a lot of time in his room.

Rose sidled over and tugged on John’s trousers.

“You okay, sweetheart?”

“Is it true? That Santa won’t be able to find the tower?”

John looks panicked, no answer apparently coming to mind, so Zatanna takes pity on him and crouches down so she can look Rose in the face.

“Normally,” she says seriously, “he wouldn’t be able to. But your dad’s going to do some magic to make sure he can find it this year.”

“And Superman won’t be able to find us?”

John smiles. “Promise, sweetheart. Just Father Christmas.”

Rose looks reassured, young enough to totally trust her father, even though she’d barely known him until a few months ago. “Thanks dad.”

“You’re welcome, love. Have you finished decorating the tree?”

“Nearly. I just need a ballerina.”

“A ballerina?”

“Yeah. Mom had a beautiful glass ballerina ornament. It was always the last one to go on the tree.” Rose’s face fell as the warm memory brought with it a sudden reminder of everything she’d lost. “I guess it got destroyed with the house though.”

John shot Zatanna a helpless look, and she smiled. Beautiful ballerinas really aren’t John’s area.

“Aniraellab tnemanro,” she said, taking the little figurine that appeared in the air before her. “Was it something like this, Rose?”

“Ooooooh!” Rose reaches out and takes the ornament, staring at it with wide disbelieving eyes. “Zee, it’s beautiful! Thank you so so so much!” She throws her arms around Zatanna’s neck, hugging her tight.

John’s legs also get a quick hug, which he seems bemused but pleased by, and then she scampers off with her prize to complete the decorating.

Zatanna stands up, and is surprised to be pulled into a hug by John. They touch, brief touches, even occasional kisses, but real honest to god hugs, what John calls a cwtch, are rare since they lost Nick.

She relaxes into his arms, revelling into the contact and breathing in the warm masculine scent of him.

“You’d have made a great mum,” he says, voice low and the words pressed into her hair like a secret.

“And you’re making a great dad,” she tells him firmly, because it’s something he needs to hear regularly, and even if he’s not the best father in the world, he is truly trying his best, which is all anyone can do.

Her hair feels damp, and she realises with a sudden shock that he’s actually crying. She just holds him, stroking his back but otherwise trying to pretend she hasn’t noticed. She can count on one hand the number of times she’s witnessed him cry, and she knows he’d be horribly ashamed if she drew attention to it.

After a moment he lets out a hiccupping breath, and wipes his eyes on the back of his hand. “God, look at me. Nick would be ashamed.”

“Nick was a dick,” she tells him firmly, pulling back and wiping a stray tear from his cheek. “I miss him every bit as much as you, but he was a total dick.”

John smiles wetly, and pulls her in for a sweet kiss. It’s the kind of kiss they never share, not since they lost Nick, gentle and warm and totally without expectation. There’s no sex in it, just love and loss and affection.

When they pull apart, Rose is watching them, hands on her hips.

“Are you going to get married now?” she asks.

Zatanna feels a little tug in her chest, John pressing gently on the magical bond that ties their souls, and says, “We already are.”

For the first time since they lost Nick, John smiles at her, not smirks, but truly smiles, warm and wide and full of affection. “So we are.”

**Author's Note:**

> Please please comment. It's Christmas! Every comment is like a present to me x
> 
> Find me on tumblr at sapphywatchesyousleep


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